Colonization Of Cuba

Spain’s initial contact with the Americas began when Christopher Columbus landed in Hispaniola (present day Haiti and Dominican Republic) and sparked a wave of Spanish exploration and colonization that lasted hundreds of years. Spanish colonization first started in South America and gradually worked it’s way up north- mainly to Mexico, Florida, and most of the southwest of

Cuba is a very diverse country, but it is very poverty-stricken and is still decades

In terms of activity during World War II, many Latin American countries played an active role in the War Effort. Effectively, the war effort also had a large impact on countries in Latin America. Specifically, I will be focusing on the economic, social and political effects that World War II played in Cuba. Cuba’s war involvement was different in terms of the other Latin American countries that were involved. Cuba’s territory at the entrance of the Gulf of Mexico proved to be a valuable area in terms of trading. Cuba also played a vital role in the support of the United States’ Lend-Lease program. Specifically, Cuba played roles in diplomacy, conflict and espionage during World War II.

To begin, it is important to know about the history of Cuba to fully comprehend how things came to be as they are today. Since the Conquest and Colonization Era (1492-1898), many of the prominent European countries and the powerful neighbor to the north of Cuba, the United States of America, have attempted to take control of the land. It first began with the Spanish conquistadors, specifically Diego Velázquez, who was the first to explore and settle the land. Up until the end of the 19th century, the Spanish monarch was the authoritative figure overseeing the land and

Cuba first gained importance in the 1560s, when the Spanish built Havana as a center to keep and build navy ships. During the 1700s, it primarily profited from sugar plantations, though it also made money from cattle farming, tobacco, and coffee. Cuba primarily exported the sugar it produced to Spain, but

Before Cuba became a nation, Cuba was first a Spanish colony. In 1492, Christopher Columbus, an Italian explorer, claimed Cuba as a colony of Spain after he was sent by the Spanish monarchy to find a route to Asia, specifically Southeast Asia. Columbus enlisted the help of the native people in Cuba, known as the Taino, to find consequential resources on the island for Spain. The Tainos’ willingness to aid Columbus caused the native people to become enslaved under Spanish rule. Despite the encouragement from Hatuey, a Taino leader who tried warning fellow Taino the horrors of Spanish subjugation, uprisings to remove the Spanish failed. In 1570’s, the economic success of the farming industry fueled Spain to import Africans to work as slaves.

For three years, Cuba had been struggling to drive away Spain for independence. At first, the government did not want military intervention in Cuba for the reason that American merchants did not need colonies since they could have unrestricted access to markets anyways. The idea of just letting people in became dominant in American foreign policy because it was an easier method to imperialism so they could manipulate to authority. A lot of the support was based on the thought of the Americans in 1776; they were fighting for their own freedom.

The Cuban population consists of a variety of ethnic origins. In the early days before the Spanish inhabited Cuba the population was made up of 90% Taino speaking American Indians ho had displaced even earlier inhabitants. Shortly after came the Spanish conquest.

In 1492, Christopher Columbus discovered Cuba and claimed it for Spain. Over the years, Cuba became annoyed of Spain’s consistent harsh ruling. In 1868, Cuba began its first uprising due to this. After ten years of restless fighting, Spain eventually destroyed Cuba’s rebellion. However, they didn’t give up. In 1895, the Cubans tried a second uprising. Spain had began a policy of reconcentration, which was when they forced the Cubans into large detention camps.

Although both Cuba and Mexico have Spaniard influence that is the most they have in relation to each other historically. Not much of Cuba is known before the arrival of the Spaniards in 1492 by Christopher Columbus, upon arrival there were no indigenous peoples on the island. Where in Mexico there plenty of indigenous people from Aztecs, Mayans, to Tzotzil. When the Spaniards arrived in Mexico in 1529 there were natives roaming around everywhere. After the arrival of the Spaniards in Cuba, the island was being used as a slave stop before

The history of Cuban immigration to the United States is vastly different than that of any other immigrant group. This difference have been codified into law and policy with the purpose of crippling Castro’s communist regime. Many immigrant groups and Americans have viewed the laws and policies as discriminatory as they clearly established preferential treatment, economic and education advantages of one immigrant group over another. After The U.S. government passed the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, exempting Cuban immigrants from many of the provision established by The U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 it was not until the “wet-foot, dry-foot policy of 1995 that anything was done by the United States government to normalize the

Cuba, officially known as the Republic of Cuba (which it, most assuredly, is not), is a large island nation located in the northern part of the Caribbean Sea, closer to the United States than Latin America. Historically, Cuba was inhabited by indigenous Americans, of which the Taíno comprised the dominant culture on the island (Dacal Moure and Rivero de la Calle, 1996). From the time of Columbus until 1898, Cuba was governed by Spain, and its agricultural economy relied on the importation of African slaves (Suchlicki, 2002). The people of Cuba are, at this time, an intermixture of these three ethnic groups, though people with lighter colored skin are generally in the higher socioeconomic strata, meaning which in Cuba means either professionals

Christopher Columbus reached Cuba on October twenty-eighth, 1492 (García, The Colonial Era). Twenty years later in 1510, the conquest of Cuba began (García, The Colonial Era). Then after one year of the Spanish exploring Cuba, Diego Velázquez was appointed as the governor of Cuba (García, The Colonial Era). He then crushed all indigenous resistances easily (García, The Colonial Era). The had much better weapons than the Cubans, like metal weapons and guns (García, The Colonial Era). The Spanish brutally killed thousands of native Cubans without hesitation.

It also says that shops will have a large range of products, however there are still large shortages of food. Rations are sometimes not even guaranteed to be delivered and if they are they will be very late. In 1991 the grain supply to Cuba from the Soviet Union since it collapsed which also caused the cattle to not be able to be fed. Since they could not feed the cattle all of the products and bi-products were very rare like the milk, beef, and eggs and chicken. Since a lot of the fuel was in a shortage the crops had to be harvested by people which made the production of food slow to crawl. They have improved the production but the shortage is still very common and no they are starting to resort to non-rationed stores and even the black market. The actual food/cuisines of Cuba come from many cultures like the Spanish, Africans and Caribbean, One very small part but slight influence is from the Chinese also. Some of the most popular foods include varieties of meat and rice with black beans. The traditional type of Cuban food can also be called criollo. Some of the most common spices and seasonings used are things like garlic and onion and common ingredients are things like lettuce, pork, eggs and tomatoes and more. One product of Cuba is also Coffee which is normally sold to other places and the coffee that Cubans normally drink are from places like

Music has been around since the beginning. It is considered an important part and symbol of traditions and cultures. Despite the long history of music, it was not until the 1920’s when a genre emerged that was the first to originate from black individuals on the streets, be made by the working-class, and feature traditional African instruments (Moore 89). This genre was Son. Son music began in eastern Cuba and then slowly spread across the nation as individuals migrated to find opportunities or got called into duty in the Cuban military. Eventually, the music was spread across Cuba and Havana became known as the center for Son music. The spread of Son music went further than just Cuba – it became a worldwide phenomenon. Considering Son music incorporated various African traditions, the genre was not able to bring full racial equality and faced many challenges when being promoted in Cuba.